Friday February 5, 2021 Year of St. Joseph
Growing up, I always knew that I shared a name with my grandfather. He died a few years before my birth, but growing up, I heard stories of him. Sometimes it was like he was giant of a man. He was revered, loved, missed. I grew to love the fact that I shared his name. It became part of my own story.
The Gospel of Matthew begins, not with the story of Jesus’ birth, but of his genealogy. From the very first verse Jesus is connected to David the King and to Abraham: all tied into the very heart of the covenant of God with his people. It ends with the prominent place of Joseph in that bond of connections. “Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah.” (Mt. 1: 16). Joseph as husband gives birthright connection of Jesus to his heritage.
Big deal? Yep. Huge deal. It shows God writing again with crooked lines to help us see His plan and our place in it.
Joseph, the carpenter knew his family tree. Joseph knew that, while he might be a middle-class laborer, he was descended from the greatest king there ever was. David, the giant slayer, David who slew tens of thousands (making King Saul jealous), David the shepherd, David the Psalmist, even David the murderous adulterer – whose heart was so much in love with God that forgiveness touched his sorrow. David, lover of God.
I want us to imagine the mind and soul of Joseph the Carpenter. He knew who he was and who he was descended from. Cutting and building, shaping and sanding, his mind must have drifted to that reality. Some of the greatest and most passionate psalms he prayed in synagogue were attributed to his ancestor. Sometimes, as sweat poured down his brow, he might have wondered why his family was not in a palace like David’s. This was his identity.
Do we even comprehend ours? Our identity is in the little babe that Joseph protected! Joseph must have wondered what his little boy would become, Would he be a King, like his ancestor David? Would he take up arms again the oppressive Romans? How would this all happen? Would he live to see it take place?
As we ponder St. Joseph, we need to ponder our spiritual identity in Jesus Christ. We are sons and daughters of God through our brother, messiah and savior, the redeemer King. Ponder that. Grasp that. We have been given a new birth by water and the spirit. Ponder that. Grasp that. What Joseph could barely comprehend, he yet served. It has been fully revealed to us, and we doubt. We are call to something so much more than what we can see, taste, touch, hear, smell and comprehend. Joseph knew Jesus in the Flesh…we know Jesus in Flesh and Blood, Soul and Divinity…and know are call to union with Him. But, knowing and doing sometimes can be worlds apart. Let our words be those of St. Paul to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20) We bear His Name…let us bear it in truth and love…Like Joseph.
St. Joseph, pray for us!